Drought in West Slopes of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains, New Mexico

Extreme drought conditions from March continued through April 2018.

Widespread severe drought conditions at the end of March 2018 continued to deteriorate and expand in coverage through April 2018. Severe drought held constant at nearly 80 percent of the state, of which 46 percent was deemed extreme drought or worse. Exceptional drought expanded to nine percent of New Mexico for the first time since July 2014. Precipitation across the state was well below normal and temperatures were above normal as only a couple weak storm systems moved through the southwest United States. Strong winds occurred on many days during April 2018 with critical fire weather conditions on several consecutive days over large portions of the state. Blowing dust was also observed with several of these strong wind events. A couple very high elevation snow events dusted the northern high terrain however snowpack was essentially gone by the end of the month. Very little hydrologic response had been noted at several key runoff points within the Rio Grande Basin. Burn bans continued to expand in coverage over several areas of the state and the occurrence of small wildfires increased throughout the month.